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Plastic in the Ocean
Plastic is one of the commodities in the world that have become a modern wonder. Humans have developed a versatile plastic material that is both flexible and strong and as well has aided in making the human race cleaner thereby gaining a world convenience in regard to usage. Plastic use has helped humans in various ways including transportation, wrapping gifts, manufacture of cheap products that are used in the homes as well as for decorative purposes. Despite the wide acceptance and use of the plastics in the world, it is undeniable that the problem that we are exposing to the environment by the use of plastics is increasingly lethal both to the lives on the dry land and the aquatic lives. Each day millions of plastics find their way into the sea through dumping of garbage into the sea and by the year 2050, it is estimated that there will be more plastics than fish into the oceans and sea by weight (Law). Human beings need to solve the plastic problem by reducing the use of plastics in their daily activities and adopting the use of other materials that are biodegradable and as well be responsible for their trash.
Plastics are non-biodegradable material implying that they cannot be broken down by the microorganisms and this is the greatest danger (Kumar). Human beings are irresponsible for the trash they produce and act carelessly on the wastes that they produce not knowing the potential dangers that they are exposing the innocent creatures into after the wrong disposal of the plastics. Plastics are known to cause multiple deaths not only to small organisms but as well to the giant creatures of both water and land. We don’t really question the destiny of the millions of waste products that are produced daily in the world as we don’t care about our environment. It is right to say that almost 90 percent of the wastes that are generated by human beings find their way to the ocean through various means such as through flood water that gathers all the plastics in a region and concentrating them into rivers that eventually channel the plastic wastes into the ocean. Humans are also blamed for their ignorance as they are directly linked to the plastics in the sea, they directly collect the plastic scraps and dispose them into the sea without the knowledge or even ignoring the potential dangers that the waste is to cause.
There are various effects of plastics in the sea, and one of the reasons is that it damages the beauty of the ocean (Grace). The sea is known to have deep blue waters, a color that is fascinating and attractive to the people especially tourists. If plastics contribute to the pollution of the ocean, it implies that the immediate environment of the oceans and seas will be littered with millions of plastics floating in the waters. These plastics are not for decoration purposes as they are waste produced by the humans and are of different kinds and therefore means that the ocean is robbed of its beauty due to the presence of these plastic litters that find their way into the large water bodies.
Sea animals have no knowledge that plastics are harmful and should not be consumed. Considering that the plastics cannot biodegrade, they pose a serious threat to the aquatic lives in the sense that most of the sea animals find themselves feeding on the plastics (Williams). These plastics are dangerous and may cause death to the animals depending on their size, as they are known to block down the food pathways preventing further flow of foods into the body system of the animal. Being deprived of food, the animals slowly die of starvation, and this is evidenced by the millions of sea creature swept on to the ocean and sea surfaces due to such deaths. Plastics also contribute to the death of sea animals through suffocation and as well as entangling the animal, making them immobile and the eventual death as they are unable to escape predation or even finding food for themselves.
With a higher probability to destroy the aesthetics of the sea and as well as being a leading cause of the aquatic deaths, measures to the reduction of the amount of plastic wastes produced need to be taken. Recycling is one of the measures that can be used to reduce the impact of the plastics in the sea. Recycling can be done by proper garbage collection to sort out the recyclable wastes, and this also helps in reducing the amount of garbage wasted into the environment, thereby less wastes reach the seas and oceans (Vegter et al.). Adoption of alternative use other plastics that are biodegradable will also play a significant role in reducing the number of deaths as well as aid in restoring the beauty of the oceans.
People might find it difficult to reduce the manufacture as well as the use of plastics considering the numerous benefits that the product have bought on their side. And due to this, public sensitization on the dangers of plastic use as well as the need for proper litter disposal need to be done in an effort to reduce wastes that find their way into the ocean. The protection of the people’s interest is good as it helps in building the economy but on the other hand, the same human beings should be mindful of the aquatic lives. The reason behind is that most of the foods consumed such as crabs, fish and pawns are found in the ocean, and the presence of these plastics reduces the quality of their food. It is therefore essential to reduce the amount of waste being produced and channeled into the oceans.
Work Cited
Grace, Robert. “Learning from Nature: the Beauty & Value of Biomimicry: Sustainable innovation inspired by nature is not new, but it’s never been more relevant.” Plastics Engineering73.10 (2017): 12-16.
Kumar, P. Senthil, and A. Saravanan. “Water Pollutants and Their Removal Techniques.” Advanced Treatment Techniques for Industrial Wastewater (2018): 114.
Law, Kara Lavender. “Plastics in the marine environment.” Annual review of marine science 9 (2017): 205-229.
Vegter, Amanda C., et al. “Global research priorities to mitigate plastic pollution impacts on marine wildlife.” Endangered Species Research 25.3 (2014): 225-247.
Williams, Shawn T. “Plastics: The Trophic Transfer of Microplastics in the Marine Food Web.” (2017).
